U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton Remarks - Combatting Hate Crimes in New York City

Introduction

Thank you, Dean McKenzie, and the entire NYU School of Law team for hosting us today. NYU is an important institution, one that New Yorkers look to for knowledge, morals, and courage.

We are here to discuss one of the most serious threats to our communities and the promise of America. One that requires a strong mix of those touchstones - knowledge, morals, and courage.

I also want to recognize our law enforcement leaders. The work we all do together, especially on this issue, reflects the best of what law enforcement can be.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Ratta - Mike, thank you and your colleagues for your partnership and your presence.

And NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch - Commissioner, your commitment to every New Yorker, in every neighborhood, is something our Office is proud to stand beside.

And to the community leaders who have joined us today - thank you. Your presence here is not a small thing. You have busy lives, you carry real responsibilities, and yet you are here. Your communities are fortunate to have you fighting for them.

Our goal for today's event is to create space for an important conversation between law enforcement and the communities we serve; a conversation about how we can work together to identify, report, and prevent hate crimes.

An important part of any conversation is listening. We want to hear from you. You are on the ground. You see what is happening.

We hope you will use the networking and Q&A portion of the event to share your community's perspective with the law enforcement representatives in this room.

By listening to you, hearing your concerns and addressing your questions, we can better serve you - and that's what we're here to do.

Hate Crimes Tear at the Fabric of Our Society

Hate-motivated violence is not like other crimes.

When someone is attacked because of who they are - because of their faith, their ethnicity, their race, their sexual orientation - the message is not just directed at that one victim. The message is sent to an entire community: you are not safe here. You do not belong here. You are vulnerable.

That message is unacceptable - in New York City, or anywhere else in the United States.

Our collective strength as a city - and as a country - is built on mutual respect. No person should have to fear being violently attacked because of who they are, what they believe, who they love, or how they worship.

This is not a new concern. In 1790, President George Washington wrote a letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. The congregation had written to congratulate him on his election, and they expressed a hope - a cautious hope - that they would be permitted to live and worship in peace.

Washington's response is as remarkable today as it was back then. He did not merely promise tolerance. He rejected that concept entirely. He wrote that the government of the United States gives to "bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance." He envisioned a nation where every person - of every faith - would sit safely under their "own vine and fig tree." A nation where we are all equal in the eyes of the law and where there is no room for hatred or violence.

That was our founding promise. And it remains our obligation today. 250 years after our nation's founding.

Now, while our founders understood the corrosive power of hate, it took our nation a long time to live up to that promise and to integrate it into federal law. In fact, the hate crime statute our Office relies on most - Title 18, United States Code, Section 249 - was not enacted until 2009. That's only 17 years ago.

New Yorkers were by no means immune from terrible hate crimes before the enactment of the federal hate crimes law-and our friends in state law enforcement aptly addressed the challenge. But the system was imperfect then, as it is now. There is always room for growth.

One tragedy in particular is important for me to highlight today.

On March 1, 1994, a van carrying a group of Hasidic Jewish students crossed the Brooklyn Bridge on their way home from visiting a Manhattan hospital. A livery driver named Rashid Baz opened fire on the van and killed sixteen-year-old Ari Halberstam and wounded three others. Ari is remembered as a charming, athletic, and studious young man, with a deep love for his family and his community.

The perpetrator of the attack, Rashid Baz, was successfully prosecuted in the state for the murder of Ari Halberstam. But those charges alone do not fully account for the heinous conduct.

I want to be direct about this: if that attack occurred today, with the tools and the legal framework we now have, we would investigate it as a federal hate crime. Ari Halberstam deserved the full weight of the law, and so does every victim who comes after him.

His mother, Devorah Halberstam, who is with us today, has spent years fighting to have her son's murder recognized for what it truly was - an act of antisemitic violence. Her advocacy helped shape the legal landscape we rely on today, and we honor her work by doing ours.[SA1]

Prosecuting Hate Crimes Is a Priority for SDNY

Let's now turn to how we are prioritizing hate crimes in our Office.

The prosecutors in our Civil Rights and Human Trafficking Unit-whose chiefs you'll hear from later today-investigate and prosecute hate crime cases every day. And I have seen firsthand how they approach these cases-with diligence, creativity, and professionalism.

But this work does not happen in isolation. It happens through collaboration - with the FBI, with the NYPD, and with the District Attorneys' offices across our jurisdiction. I want to be clear about this: the model we have built in New York is something I am genuinely proud of. It's a special thing. Different agencies, different jurisdictions, different tools - all working together in service of the same communities. In service of you and your communities.

And the results are reflected in the cases we are investigating and prosecuting every day.

Let me share two recent examples.

Earlier this year, we charged Alazim Baker with federal hate crimes in connection with a violent attack on Jewish victims in midtown Manhattan. As alleged in the charging documents and court filings, Baker approached a visiting Israeli rabbi on the street outside a well-known kosher restaurant and demanded to know his religion.

When the rabbi tried to enter the restaurant, Baker blocked his way, grabbed his yarmulke, threw it to the ground, spit on it, and stomped on it. He then punched the rabbi in the face with sufficient force to knock him into the bike lane and cause a brain bleed. When two other individuals wearing yarmulkes tried to intervene, Baker attacked them as well - yelling antisemitic statements throughout. This was not a random act of violence. It was targeted, deliberate, and hateful. We charged it, and we are prosecuting it.

More recently, we charged Shorai Moore with a federal hate crime after he allegedly attacked a gay man in the Bronx. What makes this case particularly striking is that Moore was already serving a federal sentence at a residential reentry center at the time. As alleged in the charging documents and court filings, Moore stood outside a Bronx deli, yelled anti-gay slurs, told gay people to get off the block, and then assaulted his victim with his fist, a recycling bin, and a plastic crate. That kind of violence - motivated by hatred of someone because of their sexual orientation - is unacceptable and will be prosecuted.

These cases are examples of the work happening in our Office every day, and our state partners are doing the same work as well. And together, as a team, we will continue to enforce hate crime laws aggressively and appropriately. That is not a talking point. It is a commitment.

Conclusion

Let me close where I began - with gratitude.

Thank you, all of you, for being here. You are on the front lines of this, and we are your partners.

I'll now turn it over to my friend Mike Ratta from the FBI.